Wigan Album

They all look to be enjoying themselves and waving their flags.
I remember children wearing leg callipers, like some are in the photo, in the 1950s and '60s, and how they had a strong smell of leather and would often creak and squeak when being walked on, some of the children hated wearing them too, but they had to do to support their legs.

Would the same amount of crowds turn out now to see the royals in Wigan?
To be honest, I doubt if I would go down into town to stand around for hours just to have glimpse, if lucky, of a motorcade quickly passing by.
Those who look to be sat down in Batty's window have the best idea, and probably have cups of tea and cakes too.

I remember walking in crocodile with a teacher from St Pats to Wallgate. we walked via the River Douglas at the bottom of the Amy Lane. I felt cheated because the big shiny car went past really fast. Just a glimpse of the queen but it stayed in my memory ever after.
I have the book with these photos inside.

Cyril, Polio was a real curse in those days, one boy I remember well in my class at St John’s from a nice family. I hope his life turned out well.
We had an outbreak of polio in my neighbourhood in the late fifties, one lovely little boy died but his cousin got better. Don’t know we are born these days.

Colin, yes and I can still remember those horrible Polio injections that the Nurse Cruella's liked to do with blunt needles at the clinic, and I and I'm sure many others too were thankful when they produced vaccine to put on a sugar lump.

My Dad refused all vaccinations for my brother Ronnie, born 1933 and 19 years my senior....I think people were wary and rather frightened of immunisation back in the 1930s. However, Ronnie got diphtheria and nearly died but my grandma, (who I sadly never knew), kept his throat open with a tablespoon and the doctor told her she had saved his life as the throat closes up and the patient chokes to death with diphtheria. She must have had an instinct which told her what to do. Ronnie spent a lot of time in the Sanatorium and my parents were only allowed to wave to him through a window, and he missed two years of schooling and ended up slightly deaf and with a slight stammer but he lived. When my brother Colin and I were born, (1940 and 1952 respectively), my Dad had us vaccinated for everything!

A very sad story Irene, though glad to read that Grandma had the knowhow of what to do, and Ronnie came through it.